Nintendo is (finally) coming to your smartphone

Nintendo has stubbornly resisted the smartphone as a gaming platform. Until now.

Less-than-impressive sales figures for Nintendo's Wii U console seems to have forced a rethink by the gaming giant; according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Ninty is looking to move its properties onto smartphones.

For the time being, don't expect full versions of Super Mario Bros or The Legend of Zelda, though – Nintendo is limiting its involvement with smartphones to mini-games, free video and information about its upcoming titles.

That's not surprising, since Nintendo's biggest success of recent years has been the 3DS handheld console (the less said about the 2DS, the better) – and full-fat smartphone gaming apps based on its properties would likely eat into 3DS sales.

Expect to hear more about Nintendo's plans later in the week (which might just include two new consoles), when the company announces its quarterly financial results.

Update 29/01/14 Nintendo has denied that it plans to launch smartphone mini-games in a statement to Engadget – while noting that it is willing to "make use of smart devices to promote our products." It's worth noting, though, that Nintendo has past form in denying things that it turned out to be working on; back in June 2012, it claimed that a Nikkei story about a big-screen 3DS was "nothing more than conjecture" just a month before the 3DS XL launched.